Mobile IP for IPv4 defines registration of a mobile node's location to provide connectivity between the mobile node and its home domain, facilitating communication between mobile nodes and any correspondent node. In Mobile IP network, each mobile node is identified by its home address, regardless of its current point of attachment to the Internet. While situated away from its home, a mobile node is also associated with a care-of address, which provides information about its current point of attachment to the Internet. Mobile IP is a protocol which provides for registering the care-of address with a home agent. The home agent sends datagrams destined for the mobile node through a tunnel to the care-of address (CoA). After arriving at the end of the tunnel, each datagram is then delivered to the mobile node. Further detailed information regarding Mobile IP for IPv4 can be found in RFC3344 published in 2002, which is incorporated by reference herein it its entirety.
At any time, either the home or foreign agent may wish to cease servicing a mobile node, or for administrative reasons may no longer be required to service a mobile node. RFC3543, published in 2003 (which is incorporated by reference herein it its entirety), defines a registration revocation mechanism where a mobile agent involved in providing Mobile IP services to a mobile node can notify another mobile agent providing Mobile IP services to the same mobile node of the termination of this registration. However, such a revocation mechanism is designed for notifying a single node at a time. For a mobile agent supporting multiple mobile nodes having different home addresses, multiple revocation messages have to be communicated among the mobile agents, which may cause significant network traffic and added processing load on the mobile agents.